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More and more Iranians now fear that President Ahmadinejad's nuclear weapons is steering their country toward a global confrontation fraught with danger. This is the assessment of Menashe Amir, a leading Israeli expert on Iran, who monitors Iranian affairs on a daily basis. IsraCast presents analyst Amir's five point plan for stopping Ahmadinejad which he outlined in a public lecture:

What are the prospects for Middle East peace conference at Annapolis scheduled to convene at Annapolis next month? Although conference convener U.S. President George Bush has high hopes, the IsraCast assessment is that Annapolis has as little chance of bringing 'peace in our time' as did Munich nearly seventy years ago. While the participants try and rev up some momentum for Annapolis, Hamas reacts by escalating attacks on Israel from Gaza.

Israel is refusing to comment on the Washington Post report that Israeli jets bombed a Syrian nuclear facility supplied by North Korea on September 6th. IDF intelligence chief Gen. Amos Yadlin has just briefed the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee but made no reference to the alleged air strike. At the start of the closed door session, committee chairman Zachi Hanegbi said Gen.Yadlin that he was under no obligation to discuss the affair. Knesset Member Hanegbi later told IsraCast that Israel's refusal to comment on the alleged attack is making it easier for Syria to play down the matter and there were 'encouraging signs' that tension was subsiding.

What was the mission of the mysterious Israeli flight into Syrian airspace which has not been commented on by Israeli officials? Both Syria and its ally Iran have condemned the overflight and warned of the consequences. After examining the information so far, IsraCast is of the view there is one explanation that appears more logical than all others. Meanwhile, on the Gaza border, the IDF's new high-tech tactics are in a race to suppress the Qassam rocketing before one of them causes a massacre in the Israeli town of Sderot. IDF Maj. Gen. (res.) Danny Yatom, a Labor Knesset member assesses the current confrontation and needs to be done.

Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip have stepped up their Qassam rocketing of the Israeli town of Sderot as the new school year got underway - the terrorists called it a 'present'. On September 3rd seven Qassam rockets crashed into Sderot some during the early morning when parents were taking toddlers and children to school. There were no casualties but the town was terrorized with panic stricken parents and children rushing to bomb shelters. Thanks to 'Red Dawn', the early warning sirens give civilians some 15 seconds to run to safety. Angry parents cancelled school in protest. The next day the Knesset was reconvened from its summer recess for a special debate on the situation and Prime Minister Olmert's contacts with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. IsraCast asked Likud leader Bibi Netanyahu if Prime Minister Olmert was playing Russian roulette with the children of Sderot. Kadima MK Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel, a former IDF general, also assessed the Sderot situation and why the Israeli government is apparently holding back.

Unless Tony Blair, Condoleezza Rice and other emissaries shake off the conventional wisdom that settling the Israel-Palestinian conflict is a prerequisite for Middle East stability, their visits to the region will be nothing more than mere meddling.

In spite of intense diplomatic activity scheduled for this fall, little will likely change in the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation. IDF Maj. Gen. (res.) Shalom Harari sees slim chance of the international conference achieving little more than vague understandings because Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cannot exercise any control over his own West Bank terrorists. Meanwhile, the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip is locked in an escalating confrontation with Israel. This week a terrorist rocket scored a direct hit on an Israeli kindergarten in Sderot that was empty of children at the time. In an interview with IsraCast Gen. Harari, now an analyst at the Herzliya Center, warned that if a Qassam rocket hits a crowded synagogue or kindergarten it will trigger a massive IDF operation into Gaza.

This week both Israeli and Syrian leaders have been trying to calm recent tension on the Israeli controlled Golan Heights that were captured in the Yom-Kippur War of 1973. The IDF and the Syrian army have been training on the Golan against the backdrop of some belligerent statements by Syrian President Bashar Assad that he would retrieve the area one way or another. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak toured the north declaring that Israel had no intention on attacking Syria. Syrian Vice- President Farouk Ashara also said Damascus was not about to go to war. However, Israeli expert Professor Eyal Zisser told IsraCast that despite the calming declarations, a minor incident or mistake could trigger an Israeli - Syrian war.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have crossed swords over what security risks should be taken in order to promote renewed peace contacts with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Olmert appears eager to produce results by easing restrictions on Palestinian movement on West Bank. However, sources close to Barak warn of a renewed threat of Palestinian suicide bombers if vital checkpoints are removed. IsraCast is of the view that Olmert of Kadima and Barak of Labor both require time to rebuild their leadership images with Israeli voters and therefore they will seek a short-term Modus vivendi to prevent a breakup of the government coalition.

'By and large, European media coverage is biased against Israel' - that's the assessment of Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, Chairman of the Board of Fellows of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. In an interview with IsraCast, Gerstenfeld also charged that Israel's government have proved to be 'verbal vegetarians' when it comes to confronting the problem.

About to enter the home-stretch of his second and final term, U.S. President George Bush is making a final attempt to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement after the Hamas coup in Gaza. The IsraCast analysis is that Bush is exploiting the split between Hamas and Fatah to unify West Bank Palestinians and moderate Arab states on an accelerated two-state solution. Bush told the Palestinians they must renounce Hamas and terrorism and recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Israelis had to settle the Negev and Galilee and not the West Bank.

On the first anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, Israel was soul searching about the 163 Israeli soldiers and civilians who were killed and the several thousand others who were wounded last summer. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert toured part of the northern border declaring he was right to launch the war in the face of the Hezbollah provocations. IsraCast is of the view that Olmert is now on political death row trying to appeal a condemnatory verdict by the final Winograd report that could lead to his resignation.

On July 12, 2006, at 9:05 a.m., IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were kidnapped by Hezbollah on the northern Israeli border. Top Israeli websites ceased all their online activity this morning for the duration of five minutes.

The recent surge in IDF strikes against terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip indicates that Israel has adopted a zero tolerance policy similar to that on the West Bank. The new Defense Minister Ehud Barak is overseeing this approach while IDF Chief of Staff Gaby Ashkenazi is in command on the ground. After hearing accounts of recent briefing by the Chief of Staff and senior IDF officers, IsraCast has the impression that the Gaza Strip has become the focal point in blocking the Iranian thrust to threaten Israel from both its northern and southern borders.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has spelled out a series of concessions to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his West Bank government. In a briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, Olmert spoke of lifting some West Bank checkpoints in addition to transferring hundreds of millions of Palestinian tax money to Abbas and seeking a new approach to peace talks. But IsraCast reports that Olmert also stressed that his 'calculated risks' were conditioned on Abbas leading a 'Hamas-free' government.

Israel's new defense minister Ehud Barak is now faced with his first challenge - how to respond to the latest Qassam rocketing of Sderot from the Gaza Strip. IsraCast is of the view that the total Hamas takeover of Gaza has altered its 'hybrid' status and that Israel should now consider new responses. These could include temporary interruptions to the water and electricity that Israel still supplies to Gaza.

The Hamas takeover of Gaza has upset not only the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation but could also have consequences for neighboring which also faces an Islamist threat. IsraCast is of the view that the Hamas expulsion of President Mahmoud Abbas from Gaza is one of the most dramatic developments since the start of the Oslo peace process in 1993 and casts doubt on Palestinian readiness to accept the two state solution envisaged in the Road Map peace plan.

With his election victory in the Labor party, Ehud Barak must now show the Israeli people he has answers to their pressing security problems. IsraCast is of the view that Barak's comeback is a direct result of Israel's failure to win the Second Lebanon War last summer, an event that has shaken public confidence in the nation's leadership. Barak's expected appointment as defense minister may strengthen Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - but if Barak succeeds he could eventually upstage Olmert and become the 'de facto' leader in security and foreign affairs.

As forecast by IsraCast, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is now ready to actively explore the intentions of Syria President Bashaar Assad. Olmert had to fill two necessary requirements: first the greenlight from U.S. President George W. Bush and second a new and respected defense minister, to ease the jitters of an Israeli public which has grave doubts about Olmert's capabilties after the Second Lebanon War.

In Britain, the University and College Union (UCU) vote to promote a boycott of Israeli academic institutions has aroused a furious Israeli reaction. The UCU boycott was said to be in protest to Israel's actions in the conflict with the Palestinians. Even super-dove Yossi Beilin of the left wing Labor party called on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to condemn the UCU decision. Otherwise Beilin said the outgoing leader's term would be stained by such an ignominy. The UCU resolution, approved by 158 to 99, is only a recommendation until approved by a majority of the body's 120,000 members. IsraCast evaluates the UCU motion and other manifestations of what appear to be a double standard of morality applied only to the Jewish state.